Social Media Company Turns Leads Into Profits

2009-10-23 15:59:06 (GMT) (WiredPRNews.com - Press Releases, Social Media News, Weddings)

Chicago, IL (WiredPRNews.com)

Two Bright Lights Illuminates Future of Wedding Industry Marketing

Online Service Is First To Offer Social Networking for Business-to-Business Collaboration

Wedding photographers, planners, and vendors appreciate the value of word-of-mouth business referrals. In fact, among nearly 700 wedding photographers surveyed throughout the United Sates, Canada, Europe, and Australia, more than 90% said referrals are more effective than print and online advertising. Yet, networking to secure referrals has long been an effort-intensive task.

Until now.

At long last, wedding photographers, coordinators, and vendors can now capitalize on a service designed and created for the sole purpose of driving business-to-business marketing success and generating measurable results in the intensely local and highly personal wedding industry.

Two Bright Lights, Inc. is the first-of-its-kind online image sharing and networking service. Two Bright Lights capitalizes on the strengths of social networking principles and takes them to the next level to transform vendor acquaintances into value-centric relationships, relationships into leads, and leads into profits.

For photographers, one of the best ways to obtain a referral from vendors such as florists, venues, and wedding planners, is to provide them with high-quality images that showcase their work. Vendors, on the other hand, crave the ability to present a persuasive portfolio to prospective brides and grooms. And key to doing this is securing images of past successes.

Two Bright Lights streamlines this process, saving photographers and vendors valuable marketing time, helping them cultivate their professional networks, and propelling business growth.

Utilizing sophisticated software developed specifically for the company, TBL enables photographers to create online wedding albums by uploading images to a centralized database. The photographer then tags the images, individually or collectively, by selecting from a pre-loaded database the names of vendors who collaborated with them on a particular wedding. Vendors can then view and download the images in which they are tagged, creating customized marketing materials to present to potential clients.

According to wedding photographer and Two Bright Lights co-founder Rosalind Bordo, relationship building among vendors is key to success. “My big break came when I was referred by a florist for a wedding at the Peninsula in Chicago,” Bordo states. “That referral was a direct result of my offer to burn a CD with images I had taken at a wedding we had worked on together. The image sharing was really the clincher in solidifying our relationship.”

Former McKinsey management consultant and TBL co-founder Siri Eklund agrees. “As a marketer in the luxury goods world, I constantly focused on building partnerships and image enhancement programs. Two Bright Lights allows vendors to create sophisticated consumer-facing presentations like slide shows, inspiration boards, and web-ready visuals, all of which help build stronger brands.”

In addition to serving as a catalyst for collaboration among photographers and vendors, Two Bright Lights markets directly to major wedding-related publications through an efficient, online submission capability that allows photographers to send their work to leading industry print and online outlets for consideration as “Real Wedding” features.

A promising sign of what’s to come, Two Bright Lights has already garnered notice and praise from industry pioneers and practitioners alike.

Prominent wedding industry consultant, founder and president of Engaging Concepts, Inc., and co-founder of Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings & Honeymoons for the Walt Disney Company Rebecca Grinnals notes, “Two Bright Lights is revolutionizing the wedding industry and helping small business entrepreneurs create brilliant marketing materials. The software service is intuitive and easy to use. Two Bright Lights makes it easier and more fun for me to run my business.”

For Ali Phillips, a leading Chicago wedding planner, the value provided by TBL is invaluable. “Two Bright Lights is a sensational return on investment,” Phillips notes. “As a wedding planner, I need to be able to show brides examples of my work. But I’m rarely at my desk and don’t have hours of time to upload photos from CDs or the skills to create inspiration boards in photoshop. With Two Bright Lights, the images will be online and available for me wherever I am. I simply point, click and within minutes impressive slideshows and inspiration boards are ready for my clients.”

Simply stated, in a referral-driven industry in which relationships can literally make or break a business, Two Bright Lights goal is simple: wedding marketing done brilliantly.

With an official launch date of November 2009, Two Bright Lights will first target the U.S. and Canadian wedding markets with plans to expand into the United Kingdom, Australia and additional markets. Affordably priced as low as $23.95 per month, TBL offers several membership package options as well as a free 30-day, no obligation trial. For more information, visit www.twobrightlights.com.

About Two Bright Lights

Founded in 2009, Two Bright Lights (TBL) is a subscription-based pioneering online B2B wedding marketing service dedicated to improving marketing efficiency and results for photographers, planners, and vendors. Optimizing the power of social media and networking, Two Bright Lights maximizes networking and referral capabilities through features including image sharing, portfolio development, and inspiration board creation. Additionally, by streamlining the editorial process for Real Wedding features in print and online publications, Two Bright Lights boosts business visibility in a highly-competitive industry. Headquartered in Chicago, Two Bright Lights reaches worldwide through its online presence at www.twobrightlights.com .

# # #

Contact: Siri Eklund
siri@twobrightlights.com
312-348-6064 (office), 917-499-5459 (cell)